Congratulations to everyone for making it to another year. The sun will come up each of the next 365 days, and while we cannot always control which way the wind blows, only we control how we deal with it.
From two of my favorite songs: Before you know it, the future is the past; don't be late for your life.
I'm not too big on New Year's resolutions. I have the same one every year: be happy. I struggle with that — mightily at times — but I'm giving it another shot.
Here are some web guides to more conventional resolutions...
• The Stop Smoking Center's Online Quit Program — Plenty of tips on keeping your life nicotine-free. Also check out QUITNET, an online community of people who are battling the vices of cigarettes.
• Men's Health's Guaranteed Weight Loss Program — There is no secret to weight loss. Diet and exercise, period. And you don't have to spend your life in the gym or be a vegetarian to fit into sportier clothes. HowStuffWorks.com's "The Idea Behind Dieting" shows the simple math behind losing weight.
• Cut Down on Your Drinking — A few suggestions for ridding your lifestyle of too much booze. One of my favorite books is Pete Hamill's "A Drinking Life," in which he wrote how he quit drinking at a New Year's Eve party when, after realizing how much of his life he missed because of alcohol, he put down his drink and said, "I'm never fucking doing this again." I love drinking, but I don't enjoy being drunk. I go too far too often.
• Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions — Keep the list short, keep them attainable and do them for the right reasons.
